MDK Combo

Overhaul games lives up to its name next week when the HD version of classic PC platform shooter MDK2 is released on Beamdog.com. Check out how far Kurt Hectic and friends have come over the past decade in these exclusive before-and-after screens.

The MDK series (created by Shiny Entertainment) provided countless hours of silly shooting and gliding entertainment for me back in the late 90s and early oughts. With his amazing coil suit, complete with head-mounted sniper rifle, Kurt Hectic made an excellent reluctant hero. The floating and shooting action was unique for its day; hell, it's still pretty unique.

The BioWare-developed sequel mixed things up further with shooting-heavy sequences featuring Max, a robotic six-legged dog, and truly bizarre portions featuring the mad scientist Dr. Fluke Hawkins, armed with his object-finding skills, an atomic toaster, and the ability to transform into a monstrous version of himself.

Overhaul has done a great job of polishing up the old assets. I've played a bit of the HD version already, and it's rather faithful to the original; just prettier.

If only there were a bunch of screenshots around here somewhere to demonstrate that.

As Interplay continues to capitalize upon its backlog of classics, the publisher has announced that BioWare's humorous and humiliatingly difficult action game MDK2 is to be released as a WiiWare download, while PC gets a freshly minted MDK2 HD revamp.

Both MDK2 WiiWare and MDK2 HD are being handled by Beamdog, a studio founded by BioWare veteran Trent Oster and staffed by "some of the original [MDK2] team."

MDK2 will be downloadable on Wii "during coming Winter," according to Interplay, while "MDK2 HD will follow on the PC through the Beamdog digital distribution platform."